This invention relates to an improved high-density glass wool rigid panel whose utility is to permit the construction of air distribution ducting in air conditioning and heating installations.
The invention represents an improvement over standard rigid glass fiber panels in so far as it incorporates constructive features allowing the panels used to design the air distribution conducts to be perfectly joined up.
This invention applies in the industry manufacturing elements and devices used in air conditioning and heating installations, specifically that manufacturing air ducting used to distribute air in such air conditioning and heating installations.
The applicant is aware of the existence and common use of air distribution ducting in air conditioning and heating installations, designed to move a given air flow from the equipment providing such air in suitable conditions of temperature and humidity to the areas to be cooled or heated.
The applicant is in particular familiar with ducting made by joining rigid panels of high-density glass wool in tube shape, to form hollow square or rectangular ducts.
The high-density rigid glass wool panels enable ducting of very low thermal conductivity to be made, incorporating a reinforcing glass fiber mesh to provide rigidity and allow large-area ducting to be built which can carry large air flows at static pressures of up to 80 mm. h.w.
In the design of high-density glass wool panels for air ducting, the air flow must not come into contact with the wool: this may drag glass thread into the air, soiling it, so that the panel has to be covered with some form of neutral barrier which will prevent that glass thread from contaminating the air.
The applicant is aware of a variety of coatings to prevent contact between the air flow and the high-density glass wool forming the panels defining the ducting and, in particular, is aware of strip aluminum coating containing the high-density glass wool and the reinforcing glass fiber mesh, so that the air is unable to drag off said glass thread, and flow load loss is also reduced.
Rigid high-density glass wool panels also exist with steps on opposite sides of their parallelpiped box form, to make it easier to join said panels, increasing the mechanical strength of the design and so making larger ducting possible with lower load loss than those made of box-shaped panels without this feature.
This design of high-density glass wool rigid panel forms a"sandwich" where the two aluminum strips cover two reinforcing glass fiber meshes which strengthen a tabular high-density glass wool body with steps on opposite sides, the two larger surfaces being covered.